Associations between Reason for Inpatient Palliative Care Consultation, Timing, and Cost Savings

Specialty palliative care (SPC) provides patient-centered care to people with serious illness and may reduce costs. Specific cost-saving functions of SPC remain unclear. (1) To assess the effect of SPC on inpatient costs and length of stay (LOS) and (2) to evaluate differences in costs by indication and timing of SPC. Case-control with in patients who received an SPC consultation and propensity matched controls. One large U.S. integrated delivery finance system. Using administrative data, we assessed costs associated with inpatient stays, a subset of whom received an SPC consultation. Consultations were stratified by reasons based on physician discretion: goals of care, pain management, hospice evaluation, nonpain symptom management, or support. The primary outcome was total operating costs and the secondary outcome was hospital LOS. In total, 1404 patients with SPC consultations associated with unique hospital encounters were matched with 2806 controls. Total operating costs were lower for patients who received an SPC consultation when the consultation was within 0 to 1 days of admission ($6,924 vs. $7,635, p = 0.002). Likewise, LOS was shorter (4.3 vs. 4.7 days, p < 0.001). Upon stratification by reason, goals-of-care consultations early in the hospital stay (days 0-1) were associated with reduced total operating costs ($7,205 vs. $8,677, p < 0.001). Costs were higher for pain management consultations ($7,727 vs. $6,914, p = 0.047). Consultation for hospice evaluation was associated with lower costs, particularly when early (hospital days 0-1: $4,125 vs. $7,415, p < 0.001). SPC was associated with significant cost saving and decreased LOS when occurring early in a hospitalization and used for goals-of-care and hospice evaluation.